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MARY  BAKER   EDDY, 

SON  BUT  ET  SON  OEUVRE 

(Mary  Baker  Eddy,  Her  Purpose 
and  Accomplishment) 


PAR 


FREDERICK   DIXON 


Copyright,  1915 

TKAITIT    DE    L'ANGLAIS    ET    PUBLIE    PAR 

THi:    CHRISTIAN     S<  ii;\.  K     PUBLISHING    SOCIETY 

A    BOSTON,    KTATS-UNIS 


MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

HER   PURPOSE   AND   ACCOMPLISHMENT 

IT  is  impossible  to  contemplate  the  works  of 
Mrs.  Eddy  without  being  almost  startled 
by  the  vastness  of  the  achievement.  Forty-four 
years  ago  no  one  had  heard  of  Christian  Science. 
Today  it  is  a  vast  organization,  literally  enfold- 
ing the  world.  Then  there  was  one  still  small 
voice  proclaming  the  gospel  which  was  new,  yet 
old.  Now  the  vast  chorus  of  voices  is  proclaim- 
ing that  gospel  from  the  snows  of  Alaska  to  the 
Australian  scrub,  and  from  the  pagodas  of 
China  to  the  South  African  veldt. 

Wendell  Phillips  once  declared  that  "one  on 
God's  side  is  a  majority."  Mrs.  Eddy  has 
quoted  this  saying,  and  proved  the  truth  of  it. 
Humanly  speaking,  she  has  had  everything 
against  her.  The  world,  when  it  has  any  per- 
sonal end  to  gain,  can  be  revolutionary  in  its 
methods,  but  in  ordinary  circumstances  it  is 
conservative  in  its  prejudices. 

Its  leaders,  especially  its  religious  leaders, 
had  always  been  men,  jitul  it  rebelled  at  the  idea 


[Tir6  du  "Cosmopolitan  Magazine"] 

MARY  BAKER  EDDY 
SON  BUT  ET  SON  (EUVRE 

ON  ne  peut  contempler  les  ceuvres  de  Mrs. 
Eddy  sans  etre  saisi  d'etonnement  par  les 
ininienses  resultats  obtenus.  II  y  a  quarante- 
cinq  ans  personne  n'avait  entendu  parler  de 
la  Christian  Science;  aujourd'hui  c'est  une  vaste 
organisation  qui  enveloppe  litteralement  le 
monde.  Alors,  une  seule  voix  douce  et  calme 
proclamait  le  renouvellement  de  l'ancien  evan- 
gile;  aujourd'hui,  un  puissant  choeur  de  voix 
le  proclame  depuis  les  neiges  de  1' Alaska  jus- 
qu'aux  broussailles  de  l'Australie,  et  des  pa- 
godes  de  la  Chine  au  Veld  de  l'Afrique  australe. 

L'ecrivain  Wendell  Phillips  a  dit:  "Etre  seul 
avec  Dieu  c'est  une  majorite."  Ces  paroles  ont 
6te  citees  par  Mrs.  Eddy,  et  elle  en  a  prouve 
la  verite.  En  effet,  humainement  parlant,  Mrs. 
Eddy  a  eu  tout  contre  elle.  Les  hommes,  lors- 
qu'ils  ont  un  but  personnel  a  atteindre,  savent 
Kre  revolutionnaires  dans  leurs  methodes,  mais 
en  temps  ordinaire  ils  sont  conservateurs  dans 
leurs  prejuges. 

Jusqu'a  present  les  chefs  reconnus  par  eux, 
surtout  les  chefs  religieux,  avaient  toujours  £t£ 

383222 


3  MARY    BAKEH    EDDY 

of  "a  Daniel  come  to  judgment,"  when  that 
Daniel  was  a  woman.  For  untold  centuries  its 
wise  men  had  thought  along  scientific  lines,  which 
had  certainly  been  modified  from  time  to.  time, 
but  always  on  a  material  basis,  and  it  grew 
almost  passionate  against  the  woman  who  came 
questioning  its  very  premises  and  wrecking  its 
first  principles.  It  must  be  admitted  that  Chris- 
tian Science  was  heterodox,  according  to  the 
popular  way  of  looking  at  matters ;  and  yet,  in 
bringing  a  professedly  Christian  people  back  to 
the  theology  and  healing  of  primitive  Christian- 
ity, it  was  the  only  orthodoxy. 

It  was  in  Massachusetts,  in  February,  1866, 
Mrs.  Eddy  has  told  us,  in  the  little  autobio- 
graphy known  as  "Retrospection  and  Intro- 
spection," that  she  discovered  the  science  of 
divine  metaphysical  healing  which  she  afterward 
named  Christian  Science. 

To  the  world,  Christianity  and  science  had 
become  antithetical  terms.  That  they  are  so 
no  longer  is  one  of  the  results  of  Mrs.  Eddy's 
work.  Yet  there  was  never  anything  antece- 
dently improper  from  an  orthodox  point  of 
view  in  the  combination  of  the  two  terms.  There 
is  a  phrase  used  in  the  epistles  which  is  trans- 


SON    BUT    ET    SON    CEUVRE  3 

des  hommes ;  aussi,  y  eut-il  revolte  a  la  vue  d'un 
"Daniel  venu  pour  juger,"  ce  Daniel  etant  une 
femme.  De  plus,  comme  depuis  tant  de  siecles 
les  savants  de  ce  monde  s'etaient  attaches  a 
certaines  theories  scientifiques,  modifiees  de 
temps  en  temps  il  est  vrai,  mais  toujours  sur 
une  base  materielle,  leur  courroux  eclata  contre 
la  femme  qui  mettait  en  doute  les  premisses 
memes  de  leur  science  et  reduisait  a  neant  ses 
principes  fondamentaux.  Du  reste,  si  l'on  se 
place  au  point  de  vue  habituel,  il  faut  admettre 
que  la  Christian  Science  est  heterodoxe.  Et 
pourtant,  ramener  un  peuple  reconnu  chretien 
a  la  theologie  primitive  et  aux  guerisons  operees 
par  le  christianisme  primitif,  n'est-ce  pas  la 
l'unique  orthodoxie? 

Ce  fut  aux  £tats-Unis,  dans  le  Massachu- 
setts, au  mois  de  fevrier  186G,  nous  dit  Mrs. 
Eddy  dans  la  petite  autobiographic  connue  sous 
le  titre  "Retrospection  and  Introspection," 
qu'elle  decouvrit  la  science  de  la  guerison  m£ta- 
physique  divine,  nommee  ensuite  par  elle  Chris- 
tian Science. 

Pour  le  monde,  christianisme  et  science  etaient 
devenus  des  termes  opposes,  et  si  cette  opposi- 
tion n'existe  plus,  c'est  grace  a  l'ceuvre  de  Mrs. 
Eddy.  II  n'y  avait  cependant  rien  d'impropre, 
a  l'origine,  dans  la  combinaison  de  ces  deux 
termes,  au  point  de  vue  orthodoxe.  Dans  les 
epttrei    l«    St.  Paul  et  de  St.  Pierre  se  trouv< 


4  MARY    BAKER    EDDY 

lated  "knowledge  of  God,"  but  which  should,  of 
course,  be  translated  full  or  exact,  and  so  should 
be  "scientific  knowledge  of  God;"  that  is,  of 
truth.  The  expression  is  used  by  Peter  and 
Paul,  and  in  a  way  corresponds  to  the  use  of 
the  term  "the  truth"  as  opposed  to  that  of  mere 
"truth,"  in  the  fourth  Gospel,  to  distinguish 
the  absolute  from  the  relative.  The  significance 
of  this  was  not  lost  on  the  medieval  schoolmen, 
who,  with  all  their  faults,  at  least  strove  to  in- 
troduce some  measure  of  science  into  their  study 
of  the  Bible.  The  greatest  of  all  these  was 
Thomas  Aquinas,  the  man  who  has  been  de- 
scribed by  Huxley  as  possibly  the  most  subtle 
of  the  world's  thinkers.  In  the  "Summa,"  Aqui- 
nas defines  theology,  which  in  its  pure  meaning 
is  simply  the  word  of  God,  as  the  only  absolute 
science  known,  and  dismisses  every  phase  of 
natural  science  as  purely  relative.  A  little  later 
Wyclif,  the  last  of  the  great  Oxford  schoolmen, 
as  he  was  the  first  Protestant,  translating  the 
well-known  passage  in  Luke  which  in  the  King 
James  version  runs,  "to  give  knowledge  of  salva- 
tion unto  his  people  by  the  remission  of  their 
sins,"  rendered  it  "to  give  science  and  health  to 
his  people  unto  the  remission  of  their  sins." 
Six  centuries  passed  by — centuries  of  turmoil 


SON    BUT    ET    SON    CEUVRE  4 

Fexpression  "connaissance  de  Dieu"  qui  aurait 
certainement  du  etre  traduite  par  "connaissance 
pleine  ou  exacte,"  "connaissance  scientifique  de 
Dieu"  c'est-a-dire  de  la  verite.  De  "la  verite" 
dans  son  sense  absolu  ainsi  que  ce  terme  est 
employe  au  quatrieme  evangile  en  opposition  au 
simple  terme  "verite"  pour  distinguer  l'absolu 
du  relatif.  L'importance  de  cette  signification 
n'echappa  point  aux  theologiens  du  Moyen  Age, 
qui,  malgre  les  abus  de  raisonnement  auxquels 
ils  se  laisserent  entrainer,  s'efforcerent  au  moins 
d'introduire  un  peu  de  science  dans  leur  etude 
de  la  Bible.  Thomas  d'Aquin,  le  plus  grand 
d'entre  eux,  et  au  dire  du  naturaliste  Huxley  le 
plus  subtil  des  penseurs  peut-etre,  definit  dans 
sa  "Somme"  la  theologie  (qui  dans  son  sens  pri- 
mitif  signifiait  la  parole  de  Dieu)  comme  la 
seule  science  absolue  que  Ton  connaisse,  et  ecarte 
la  science  naturelle  dans  toutes  ses  branches 
comme  purement  relative.  Un  peu  plus  tard 
W  vclif,  le  dernier  des  grands  scolastiques  d'Ox- 
ford  et  le  premier  des  reformateurs,  traduisant 
le  passage  de  St.  Luc,  qui  dans  la  version  du  roi 
Jacques  Ier  d'Angleterre  est  concu  en  ces 
termes:  "afin  de  donner  a  son  peuple  la  con- 
naissance du  salut  par  la  remission  de  ses 
jx'ches,"  l'exprima  comme  suit:  "afin  de  donner 
a  son  peuple  la  science  et  la  sante*  dans  la  remis- 
sion de  ses  peches." 

Six   riedei  se  passerent — des  siecles  <!<•  <\r-* 


5  MARY    BAKER    EDDY 

from  one  end  of  Christendom  to  the  other.  The 
old  bands  of  orthodoxy,  loosened  by  the  coming 
of  Lollardy,  gave  way  at  the  Reformation.  The 
revival  of  learning  brought  with  it  not  merely 
the  recovery  of  the  Greek  tongue,  and  the  insti- 
tution of  what  may  be  termed  textual  criticism, 
it  brought  with  it  a  wealth  of  daring  speculation 
which  developed,  in  time,  into  historic  criticism. 

The  old  superstitious  regard  for  sacred  things 
began  to  be  appraised  by  the  standard  of  ra- 
tionalism, and  then  came  a  century,  after  the 
carnival  of  the  "goddess  of  Reason,"  when  the 
efforts  of  scientific  research  seemed  to  be  largely 
directed  to  the  attempted  destruction  of  revela- 
tion. It  was  at  this  moment,  when  the  high 
priests  of  natural  science  were  building  their 
altars  to  their  unknown  gods,  that  Mrs.  Eddy's 
book  "Science  and  Health  with  Key  to  the 
Scriptures"  was  given  to  the  world. 

"During  twenty  years  prior  to  my  discov- 
ery," she  writes,  on  page  24  of  "Retrospection 
and  Introspection,"  "I  had  been  trying  to  trace 
all  physical  effects  to  a  mental  cause;  in  the 
latter  part  of  1866  I  gained  the  scientific  cer- 
tainty that  all  causation  was  Mind,  and  every 
effect  a  mental  phenomenon.  My  immediate 
recovery  from  the  effects  of  an  injury  caused 
by  an  accident,  an  injury  that  neither  medicine 


SOX    BUT    ET    SON    CEUVRE  5 

ordre  pour  toute  la  chretiente.  Les  anciennes 
forces  de  l'orthodoxie,  ebranlees  par  l'appari- 
tion  des  Lollards,  se  desagregerent  a  la  Reforme. 
La  Renaissance  fit  non  seulement  revivre  l'etude 
de  la  langue  grecque  et  institua  ce  qui  peut  etre 
nomine  la  critique  des  textes,  elle  produisit  aussi 
une  riche  eclosion  d'audacieuses  speculations 
philosophiques  qui,  en  se  developpant,  devinrent 
la  critique  historique. 

L'ancienne  veneration  superstitieuse  pour  les 
choses  sacrees  commen9a  a  etre  estimee  d'apres 
les  donnees  de  la  raison,  et  puis  vint  une  epoque, 
apres  les  fetes  carnavalesques  de  la  "deesse 
Raison,"  pendant  laquelle  les  recherches  scien- 
tifiques  semblerent  avoir  surtout  pour  but  de 
tenter  de  detruire  la  revelation.  C'est  alors, 
au  moment  oil  les  grandes  pretres  de  la  science 
naturelle  elevaient  des  autels  a  leurs  dieux  in- 
connus,  que  Mrs.  Eddy  donna  au  monde  son 
thric  "Science  and  Health  with  Key  to  the 
Scriptures." 

Void  ce  qu'elle  dit  a  la  page  24  de  "Retro- 
spection and  Introspection" :  "Pendant  les  vingt 
annees  qui  ont  precede  ma  decouverte,  j'avais 
essaye*  de  rapporter  tous  les  effets  physiques  a 
une  cause  mentale.  Vers  la  fin  de  l'annee  1866 
j'obtins  la  certitude  scientifique  que  toute  cau- 
sality £tait  en  Dieu  et  tout  effet  un  ph£nomene 
mental.  Ma  gu^rison  instantan^e  des  effets 
(I'uiic  lesion  causee  par  un  accident,  lesion  que 


I  MARY    BAKER    EDDY 

nor  surgery  could  reach,  was  the  falling  apple 
that  led  me  to  the  discovery  how  to  be  well 
myself,  and  how  to  make  others  so." 

The  year  1866  was  the  eighth  centenary  of 
the  Norman  Conquest,  but  in  it  there  occurred 
an  event  of  infinitely  greater  importance  to 
humanity  than  the  landing  of  William  of  Xor- 
mandy  at  Pevensey.  That  event  was,  as  has 
been  said,  the  launching  of  the  Christion  Science 
movement  which  was  to  restore  the  healing  of 
primitive  Christianity  to  Christendom.  In  that 
year  Mrs.  Eddy  stood  alone  in  the  world  with 
her  discovery.  She  was  devoid  of  all  the  means 
which  are  regarded  as  essential  to  the  under- 
taking of  a  successful  crusade,  but  she  had 
found  an  understanding  of  divine  Science  which 
no  one  could  take  from  her,  and  she  realized  the 
full  import  of  her  own  words  on  page  99  of 
"Miscellaneous  Writings":  "In  no  one  thing 
seemed  Jesus  of  Nazareth  more  divine  than  in 
his  faith  in  the  immortality  of  his  words.  He 
said,  'Heaven  and  earth  shall  pass  away,  but 
my  words  shall  not  pass  away';  and  they  have 
not."  Christendom  had  read  these  words  for 
well-nigh  twenty  centuries,  and  had  referred 
them  to  some  future  life,  some  kingdom  beyond 
the  clouds.      Mrs.  Eddy  remembered  that  not 


SON    BUT    ET    SON    CBUVRE  6 

ni  la  medecine  ni  la  chirurgie  ne  pouvaient  at- 
teindre,  fut  pour  moi  comnie  la  pomme  pour 
Newton  et  m'amena  a  decouvrir  comment  mani- 
fester  la  sante  en  moi-meme,  et  comment  la 
donner  aux  autres." 

En  cette  annee  1866,  huitieme  centenaire  de 
la  conquete  de  l'Angleterre  par  les  Normands. 
il  se  passa  un  evenement  d'une  importance  infini- 
ment  plus  grande  pour  Phumanite  que  le  debar- 
quement  de  Guillaume  le  Conquerant  a  Peven- 
sey.  Cet  evenement  fut  le  lancement  du  mouve- 
ment  de  la  Christian  Science  qui  devait  rendre 
a  la  chretiente  les  guerisons  operees  par  le 
christianisme  primitif.  Cette  annee  la  Mrs. 
Eddy  se  trouvait  seule  au  monde  avec  sa  decou- 
verte.  Tous  les  moyens  considered  comme  essen- 
tiels  pour  entreprendre  une  croisade  avec  succes 
lui  manquaient,  mais  elle  etait  arrivee  a  la  com- 
prehension de  la  science  divine,  comprehension 
que  personne  ne  pouvait  lui  enlever,  et  elle  con- 
nut  pleinement  toute  la  portee  de  ce  qu'elle 
6crivit  dans  "Miscellaneous  Writings,"  page  99 : 
"En  aucune  chose  Jesus  de  Nazareth  ne  sembla 
plus  divin  que  dans  sa  foi  en  l'immortalite  de  ses 
paroles.  'Le  ciel  et  la  terre  passeront*  a-t-il 
dit,  'mais  mes  paroles  ne  passeront  point' — 
et  elles  n'ont  pas  passe."  Ces  paroles,  la  chre- 
tiente les  lisait  depuis  pres  de  vingt  siecles,  les 
rapportant  a  quelque  roy&ume  audi  la  del  nua- 
ges.     Mrs.  Eddy  se  souvint  que  non  sculeim  nt 


7  MARY    BAKER    EDDY 

only  had  Jesus  come  that  men  might  have  lift- 
abundantly,  but  that  he  had  declared  that  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  was  in  their  midst  or  within 
them.  She  gave  herself  to  the  world  to  show 
that  now  meant  now,  and  not  tomorrow,  and 
that  practical  Christianity  meant  a  present  sal- 
vation from  the  ills  which  men  are  heirs  to. 

People  frequently  talk  of  Christian  Science 
as  if  it  were  nothing  more  than  a  mammoth 
dispensary;  as  a  matter  of  fact,  that  is  an 
almost  ludicrous  misconception  of  what  its  heal- 
ing means.  It  means — the  eradication  from 
the  human  consciousness  of  all  those  mental 
causes  which  produce  sin,  disease,  and  death. 
It  means  that  in  order  to  be  healthier  every 
patient  must  become  a  better  man.  It  aims  not 
merely  at  the  destruction  of  sickness  and  pain, 
but  of  sorrow  and  want,  of  misery  and  vice. 
It  is  true  that  it  lays  stress  on  physical  healing, 
but  it  does  this  because  it  is  the  teaching  of 
Christ  Jesus.  If  the  records  of  the  physical 
healing  were  deleted  from  the  Bible,  an  enor- 
mous portion  of  the  Gospels  would  be  shorn 
away.  Jesus  used  his  power  to  heal,  not  only 
to  lift  the  burdens  of  suffering  humanity,  but 


SOX    BUT    ET    SON    OZUVRE  7 

Jesus  etait  vcnu  pour  que  les  hommes  eussent 
la  vie  plus  abondamment,  mais  qu'il  avait  declare 
aussi  que  le  regne  de  Dieu  est  au  milieu  d'eux 
ou  au  dedans  d'eux.  Elle  se  devoua  au  monde 
pour  prouver  que  maintenant  signifie  bien, 
aujourd'hui  et  non  demain,  et  que  le  christian- 
bme  applique  libere  l'homme,  actuellement,  des 
niaux  auxquels  il  est  sujet. 

On  parle  souvent  de  la  Christian  Science 
comine  si  elle  n'etait  rien  de  plus  qu'un  gigan- 
tesque  dispensaire.  En  realite,  c'est  la  une  con- 
ception erronee  et  presque  grotesque  de  ce 
qu'est  la  guerison  due  a  la  Christian  Science. 
Elk  consiste  a  extirper  de  la  conscience  humaine 
toutes  les  causes  mentales  qui  produisent  le 
pec  he,  la  maladie  et  la  mort,  et  elle  exige  de 
chaque  malade  qu'il  devienne  un  homme  meil- 
leur  pour  devenir  un  homme  bien  portant.  Cette 
guerison  n'a  pas  seulement  pour  but  la  destruc- 
tion de  la  maladie  et  de  la  douleur,  mais  de 
l'affliction,  de  I'indigence,  de  la  misere  et  du 
vice.  II  est  vrai  que  la  Christian  Science 
attache  beaucoup  d'importance  a  la  guerison 
physique,  mais  elle  le  fait  parce  que  tel  est 
1  enseignement  de  Jesus-Christ.  Si  les  remits 
de  guerisons  6taient  supprimes  de  la  Bible,  les 
i^iles  seraient  de  beaucoup  raccourcis.  Je- 
sus se  servit  de  son  pouvoir  de  guerison  non 
m  ulcment  pour  enlever  le  fardcau  qui  pesc  iur 
rhumaniU  souffranto.   mail   mssi  pour  donner 


8  MARY    BAKBB    EDDY 

also  as  an  object-lesson  to  prove  the  science  of 
his  teaching.  When  the  disciples  of  John  came 
to  demand  whether  he  was  the  Christ,  it  was  his 
works  and  not  his  words  to  which  he  pointed, 
and  when  he  sent  out  his  own  disciples  to  give 
the  gospel  of  good  news  to  the  people,  he  bade 
them  not  alone  to  preach  the  gospel,  but  to  heal 
the  sick.  In  this  way  he,  and  no  other  than  he, 
made  the  ability  to,  in  some  measure,  perform 
his  works  the  test  of  genuineness  of  his  pro- 
fessed followers'  claims  to  the  title  of  Christian, 
and  it  is  a  startling  commentary  on  almost  two 
thousand  years  of  religious  education  that  the 
one  church  which  has  accepted  his  test  "in 
spirit  and  in  truth"  should  be  the  one  assailed 
by  orthodoxy  for  its  heretical  teachings. 

The  day  when  the  cry  of  "Heretic !"  was 
potent  to  stir  up  the  passionate  superstitions 
of  unthinking  crowds  has  passed  away.  The 
world  is  recognizing  that  the  heresy  of  yester- 
day is  always  the  orthodoxy  of  tomorrow. 
The  same  spirit  accused  Jesus  of  blasphemy, 
dismissed  Paul  as  a  pestilent  fellow,  decried 
Wy cliff  as  a  forger  of  lies,  and  claimed  Luther 
was  a  drunken  friar.     The  criticisms  of  Chris- 


90N    BUT    RT   SON    (EUVRE  8 

une  lecon  de  choses  qui  prouve  la  science  de  son 
enseignement.  Quand  les  disciples  de  Jean- 
Baptiste  vinrent  demander  a  Jesus  s'il  etait 
vraiment  le  Christ,  il  ne  leur  donna  pas  comme 
preuve  ses  paroles,  mais  ses  ceuvres.  Et  lors- 
qu'il  envoja  ses  propres  disciples  annoncer  la 
bonne  nouvelle  au  peuple,  il  ne  leur  enjoignit 
pas  seulement  de  precher  l'evangile,  mais  de 
guerir  les  malades.  C'est  ainsi  que  Jesus  et 
nul  autre  que  lui,  pour  savoir  si  ceux  qui  pre- 
tendaient  etre  ses  disciples  meritaient  veritable- 
ment  le  titre  de  chretiens,  prit  comme  preuve 
leur  capacite  a  faire,  au  moins  en  partie,  les 
oeuvres  que  lui-meme  faisait.  N'est-il  pas  sur- 
prenant  d'observer  qu'a  notre  epoque,  apres 
environ  deux  mille  ans  d'education  religieuse,  la 
seule  eglise  ayant  accepte  cette  preuve  "en 
esprit  et  en  verite"  soit  celle  que  l'orthodoxie 
accuse  d'enseigner  l'heresie. 

Le  temps  n'est  plus  ou  le  cri :  "a  l'heretique" 
avait  le  pouvoir  d'exciter  les  passions  supersti- 
«  s  des  foules  inconscientes.  Le  monde  re- 
conn  ait  que  l'heresie  d'hier  est  tou jours  l'ortho- 
doxie de  demain.  Deja  au  commencement  de 
chr&ienne  ce  meme  esprit  etait  a  l'ceuvre, 
accusant  Jesus  de  blaspheme,  expulsant  Paul 
con  une  un  individu  nuisible,  qualifiant  Wyclif 
de  forgeur  de  mensonges  et  Luther  de  moine 
ivrogne.  Tout  aussi  peu  fondees  que  celles-la, 
les  critiques  dirigees  contre  la  Christian   Sci- 


I  MARY    BAKER    EDDY 

tian  Science,  based  on  no  more  reasonableness 
than  this,  are  rapidly  finding  their  way  into 
the  repositories  in  which  are  preserved  the  cu- 
riosities of  theological  vituperation,  and  the 
world  is  beginning  to  see,  in  the  life  work  of 
Mrs.  Eddy,  the  fulfilment  of  the  wonderful 
prophecy  of  Emerson,  "When  a  faithful  thinker, 
resolute  to  detach  every  object  from  personal 
relations,  and  see  it  in  the  light  of  thought, 
shall  at  the  same  time  kindle  science  with  the 
fire  of  the  holiest  affection,  then  will  God  go 
forth  anew  into  creation." 

It  has  been  truly  said  that  if  Christianity 
is  not  scientific,  or  if  science  is  not  Christian, 
one  or  the  other  is  unnecessary.  Mrs.  Eddy 
perceived  this  when  she  wrote,  on  page  313 
of  Science  and  Health,  "Jesus  of  Nazareth  was 
the  most  scientific  man  that  ever  trod  the 
globe."  From  whatever  point  of  view  you  ap- 
proach his  life  you  will  be  driven  to  admit 
this,  unless  you  are  prepared  to  consign  the 
Gospels  to  the  scrap-heap  of  mythology.  He 
wandered  among  the  Syrian  lakesides,  over  the 
Galilean  hills,  and  through  the  villages  of 
Judea,  preaching  the  most  absolute  truth  the 
world  had  ever  heard,  the  gospel  of  Christ,  and 
when  the  Pharisees  and  the  Scribes,  the  fisher- 
men and  herdsmen  recoiled  alike  at  the  truth 
so  fearlessly  proclaimed  to  them,  he  fell  back 


SON    BUT    ET   SON    CEUVRE  9 

ence  sont  rapidement  emportees  et  vont  par- 
tager  le  sort  de  tant  d'autres  curieux  exemples 
de  virulentes  censures  theologiques.  Le  monde 
commence  a  voir,  dans  la  vie  et  Poeuvre  de  Mrs. 
Eddy,  Paccomplissement  de  cette  merveilleuse 
prophetie  d'Emerson :  "Quand  un  penseur  fidele, 
resolu  a  detacher  chaque  objet  de  toute  relation 
personnelle  pour  le  voir  a  la  lumiere  de  la  pen- 
see,  pourra  en  meme  temps  communiquer  a  la 
science  elle-meme  la  flamme  d'un  saint  amour, 
alors  Dieu  paraitra  de  nouveau  dans  sa  crea- 
tion." 

On  dit  avec  raison  que  si  le  christianisme  n'est 
pas  scientifique  ou  la  science  pas  chretienne, 
Pun  des  deux  est  inutile.  C'est  ce  que  Mrs. 
Eddy  comprit  quand  elle  ecrivit:  "Jesus  de 
Nazareth  a  ete  Phomme  le  plus  scientifique  qui 
ait  jamais  marche  sur  notre  globe"  (Science 
and  Health,  p.  313).  De  quelque  cote  qu'on 
considere  la  vie  de  J£sus  on  sera  force  d'ad- 
mettre  cette  declaration,  a,  moins  qu'on  ne  soit 
dispose  a  releguer  les  evangiles  au  rang  des 
fables  mythologiques.  Jesus  parcourut  les 
rivages  du  lac  de  Genesareth,  par  dela  les  col- 
lines  de  Galilee,  et  traversa  les  villages  de  Judee 
prechant  la  verite  la  plus  absolue  que  le  monde 
ait  jamais  entendue:  Pevangile  du  Christ.  Et 
quand  les  Pharisiens  et  les  Scribes,  les  pecheurs 
et  les  bergers  eurent  tous  £galement  recul6  avec 
aversion  devant  la  v^rit^  qui  leur  6tait  si  cou- 


10  MARY    BAKER    EDDY 

on  the  miracle,  telling  them  that  if  they  could 
not  believe  for  the  word's  sake,  they  must  be- 
lieve for  the  very  work's  sake,  and  so  he  made 
these  miracles  the  scientific  and  practical  demon- 
stration of  the  truth  of  his  theory  or  theology. 
To  Jesus  the  miracle  was  nothing  more  or  less 
than  the  inevitable  action  of  spiritual  law,  and 
so,  with  marvelous  spiritual  perception,  Mrs. 
Eddy  explains  that  the  miracle  is  not  a  super- 
natural occurrence,  but  a  divinely  natural  one. 
If  any  one  questions  this  for  a  moment,  it  is 
only  necessary  to  turn  to  the  test  of  the  New 
Testament.  The  words  there  translated  "mira- 
cle" have  not  and  never  had  any  supernatural 
meaning  until  that  meaning  was  grafted  on  to 
them  in  the  centuries  immediately  succeeding 
Constantine.  Even  the  Latin  word  miraculum, 
which  Jerome  substituted  for  them,  in  his  later 
writings,  was  a  simple  scientific  term  in  use 
among  the  pagan  philosophers.  The  simple 
fact  is  that  the  primitive  Church  never  ques- 
tioned Jesus'  command  to  heal  the  sick.  It  was 
too  near  the  days  when  he  had  said,  "He  that 
believeth  on  me  the  works  that  I  do  shall  he  do 
also,"  to  make  it  possible,  and  the  Epistle  of 
James  makes  this  indisputably  clear  in  that 
terrific  warning,  "Faith  without  works  is 
dead." 

In   spite   of  this   Christendom   continued   to 


SON    BUT    ET   SON   CEUVRE  10 

rageu semen t  annoncee',  Jesus  eut  recours  au 
miracle,  leur  disant  que  s'ils  ne  pouvaient  croire 
en  entendant  ses  paroles  ils  devaient  croire  a 
cause  de  ses  oeuvres.  De  cette  facon,  il  fit  de 
ses  miracles  la  demonstration  pratique  et  scien- 
tifique  de  la  verite  de  sa  theorie  ou  theologie. 
Pour  Jesus  le  miracle  n'etait  autre  chose  que 
Pinevitable  action  de  la  loi  spirituelle,  et  voila 
pourquoi  Mrs.  Eddy,  avec  sa  merveilleuse  per- 
ception spirituelle,  a  explique  que  le  miracle 
n'est  pas  un  fait  surnaturel,  mais  un  fait  divine- 
ment  naturel.  Si  quelqu'un  mettait  cela  en 
doute,  il  suffirait  d'en  appeler  au  Nouveau  Tes- 
tament. Les  mots  du  texte  primitif  qui  s'y 
trouvent  traduits  par  "miracle"  n'ont  jamais 
eu  cette  signification  surnaturelle.  Elle  leur  fut 
donnee  dans  les  siecles  qui  suivirent  Constantin. 
Et  meme  le  mot  latin  "miraculum"  que  Jerome 
a  employe  dans  ses  derniers  ecrits  etait  simple- 
ment  un  terme  scientifique  en  usage  parmi  les 
philosophes  paiens.  En  tout  cas,  ce  qui  est  un 
fait  avere,  c'est  que  l'eglise  primitive  ne  mit 
jamais  en  doute  le  commandement  de  J£sus  de 
guerir  les  malades.  Le  temps  £tait  trop  proche 
ou  Jesus  avait  dit :  "Celui  qui  croit  en  moi  fera 
les  oeuvres  que  je  fais" ;  et  Tepitre  de  Saint 
Jacques  le  fait  indiscutablement  comprendre 
dans  cet  avertissement  terrible :  "La  foi  sans  les 
oeuvres  est  morte." 

Malgre"  cela  la  chretiente  continua  a  vouloir 


11  .      MARY    BAKER    EDDY 

attempt  to  part  the  seamless  garment.  It  more 
and  more  set  apart  a  priesthood  to  preach  the 
gospel,  while  handing  over  the  healing  of  the 
sick  to  the  medical  profession,  which  might  be 
purely  infidel. 

It  was  called  upon  necessarily  to  defend  its 
deviation  from  the  clear  message  of  the  gospel, 
and  it  has  done  so  in  the  extraordinary  con- 
tention that  the  growth  of  Christianity  is  to 
be  traced  in  the  growth  of  hospitals.  No  state- 
ment could  possibly  have  been  farther  from  the 
truth.  It  is  the  temporary  failure  of  the  Chris- 
tian church  which  the  growth  of  hospitals  has 
stamped  on  the  face  of  Christendom.  The 
hospital  was  originally  a  temple  in  which  pagan 
worship  was  at  last  combined  with  the  minis- 
trations to  the  sick.  That  those  ministrations 
took  the  form  of  the  grossest  superstition  we 
know,  nor  when  men  took  to  less  occult  and 
more  purely  material  remedies  was  the  change 
very  much  for  the  better. 

The  Christian  era  saw  the  hospitals  in  the 
temples  of  Asklepios  transferred  to  the  monas- 
teries, and  then  finally  severed  from  religious 
institutions,   but    it    witnessed,    if   anything,    a 


SON    BUT    ET    SON    CEUVRE  11 

partager  la  tunique  sans  couture  du  Christ,  et 
s'appliqua  de  plus  en  plus  a  constituer  un  corps 
sacerdotal  distinct  pour  precher  Pevangile, 
tandis  que  la  guerison  des  malades  6tait  aban- 
donnee  a  un  corps  medical  qui  pouvait  etre 
entierement  compose  d'incredules. 

Naturellement  la  chretiente  se  trouva  dans 
Pobligation  de  justifier  cette  deviation  au  mes- 
sage si  clair  de  Pevangile,  et,  pour  decider  la 
question,  elle  arriva  a  cette  conclusion  extra- 
ordinaire, que  les  progres  du  christianisme  pou- 
vaient  se  mesurer  a  la  multiplication  des  hopi- 
taux.  Aucune  conclusion  ne  pouvait  etre  plus 
eloignee  de  la  verite,  et  c'est  Pechec  temporaire 
de  Peglise  chretienne  que  la  multiplication  des 
hopitaux  a  grave  sur  le  fronton  de  Pedifice  chre^ 
tien.  A  Porigine,  Phopital  etait  un  temple  dans 
lequel  se  celebrait  non  seulement  le  culte  pai'en, 
mais  ou  a  la  longue  les  malades  purent  aussi 
recevoir  des  soins.  Nous  savons  que  ces  soins 
prenaient  la  forme  de  la  plus  grossiere  supersti- 
tion, et  que  plus  tard,  lorsque  les  hommes  eurent 
recours  a  des  remedes  moins  occultes  et  plus 
foncierement  mateViels,  le  changement  ne  fut 
guere  pour  le  mieux. 

Quand  vint  Pere  chretienne,  les  hopitaux  qui 
se  trouvaient  dans  les  temples  d'Esculape  furent 
transfers  dans  les  monasteres,  puis  finalement 
s£par£s  completement  des  institutions  reli- 
gieuses:  mais  la  me<iecine  n'en  devint  que  de 


12  MARY    BAKER    EDDY 

deepening  of  material  views  of  medicine.  Grad- 
ually, however,  there  grew  up  an  orthodox  medi- 
cal profession  as  there  had  grown  up  an  orthodox 
church.  So  that  already  in  medieval  times  we 
find  a  court  physician  treating  a  royal  prince 
for  smallpox  by  draping  him  in  red  cloth,  and 
an  unfortunate  irregular  practitioner  being  set 
in  the  pillory  for  hanging  a  piece  of  cardboard 
round  a  woman's  neck.  The  appalling  pre- 
scriptions mentioned  by  Pliny  had  scarcely 
been  improved  upon  at  the  Renaissance,  and  the 
prescriptions  of  the  Renaissance  were  not  more 
objectionable  than  those  of  the  beginning  of  the 
last  century,  a  fact  which  should  not  be  lost  on 
the  critics  who  demand  why  the  world  should 
have  had  to  wait  all  these  centuries  for  the 
discovery  of  Christian  Science. 

"God's  in  His  heaven,"  says  a  great  poet, 
"all's  right  with  the  world,"  but  God  was  in  his 
heaven  when  the  pagan  priests  were  exhibiting 
their  serpents  in  the  temples  of  Cos  just  as 
much  as  when  Christ  Jesus  was  healing  the  sick 
in  the  streets  of  Capernaum,  and  just  as  much 
when  the  Elizabethan  physicians  were  scraping 
powder  off  mummies  or  the  Georgian  ones  try- 
ing to  expel  smallpox  by  innoculation.  Jesus, 
speaking  of  his  spiritual  selfhood,  the  Christ, 
declared,  "before  Abraham  was  I  am,"  while, 


SON    BUT    ET   SON    CEUVRE  12 

plus  en  plus  materielle  dans  ses  vues.  Peu  a 
peu,  cependant,  il  se  forma  une  profession  medi- 
cale  orthodoxe,  comme  il  s'etait  forme  une  eglise 
orthodoxe.  De  sorte  que,  deja  au  Moyen  Age, 
nous  trouvons  un  medecin  de  cour  soignant  un 
prince  royal  atteint  de  petite  verole  en  Penvelop- 
pant  de  drap  rouge,  tandis  qu'un  malheureux 
praticien  non-gradue  fut  mis  au  pilori  pour 
avoir  attache  un  morceau  de  carton  autour  du 
cou  d'une  femme.  Les  terrifiantes  ordonnances 
medicalcs  mentionnees  par  Pline  ne  s'etaient 
guere  bonifiees  a  la  Renaissance,  et  les  ordon- 
nances de  la  Renaissance  n'etaient  pas  plus 
mauvaises  que  celles  du  commencement  du  siecle 
dernier,  ce  que  ne  devraient  pas  oublier  les 
critiques  qui  se  demandent  pourquoi  le  monde 
a  du  attendre  pendant  tant  de  siecles  la  decou- 
verte  de  la  Christian  Science. 

Un  grand  poete  a  dit:  "Dieu  est  dans  son 
ciel  et  tout  va  bien  sur  la  terre."  Mais  Dieu 
(tait  tout  autant  dans  son  ciel  quand  les  pre- 
paieiu  cxhibaient  leurs  serpents  dans  les 
templet  de  Cos  que  lorsque  Jesus-Christ  gueris- 
>ait  U  s  inaladi -s  dans  les  rues  de  Capernaum  et 
que  les  medecins  de  la  reine  Elizabeth  grattaient 
del  momics  pour  en  extraire  de  la  poudre  ou 
que  les  medecins  du  roi  Georges  essayaient  d'ex- 
r  la  petite  verole  par  l'inoculation.  J£sus, 
p ■  i -lant  de  son  identite  spirituelle,  le  Christ, 
(l.'(  l.ir  lit  :  "Avant  qu'Abraham  fut,  je  suis,"  et 


II  MAHY    BAKER    EDDY 

later  again,  at  the  moment  of  the  ascension, 
he  declared,  still  speaking  of  the  Christ,  "Lo, 
I  am  with  you  alway,  even  unto  the  end  of  the 
world."  Though  God  was  in  his  heaven,  though 
Christ  is  eternal,  the  world  had  to  wait  many 
centuries  to  learn  from  Jesus  what  God,  and 
heaven,  and  Christ  really  were,  and  when  in 
the  long  night  which  followed  the  time  of  Con- 
stantine  it  forgot  its  lesson,  it  had  to  wait  for 
Mrs.  Eddy  to  rediscover  and  again  make  prac- 
tical the  teaching  of  "the  most  scientific  man 
who  ever  trod  the  globe." 

This  does  not  mean  that  in  all  those  cen- 
turies of  darkness  the  fact  that  God  was  in  His 
heaven  was  entirely  hidden  from  the  world. 
Again  and  again,  both  before  and  after  the 
Christian  era,  men  had  arisen  who,  in  moments 
of  intense  spiritual  perception,  had  grasped  the 
omnipotence  of  spiritual  truth  sufficiently  to 
be  able  to  heal  the  sick,  and  stay  the  hand  of 
death.  The  voices  of  such  men  were,  however, 
voices  crying  in  the  wilderness  of  doubt  and 
animality,  and  their  lives  were  like  solitary 
stars  making  almost  clearer  the  darkness  of 
the  night,  whereas  the  coming  of  Christ  Jesus 
was  the  rising  of  the  sun  of  righteousness  with 
healing  in  its  wings.  Such  pioneers,  in  the  cen- 
turies of  the  Christian  era,  were  Stephen  Hard- 
ing   and    Sebald,    Luther,    Fox,    and    Wesley. 


SOX    BUT    ET    SON    CEUVRE  18 

plus  tard  encore,  au  moment  de  son  ascension  il 
disait,  parlant  aussi  du  Christ:  "Voici,  je  suis 
avec  vous  tous  les  jours  jusqu'a  la  fin  du  monde." 
Bien  que  Dieu  fut  dans  son  ciel,  bien  que  Christ 
soit  eternel,  il  fallut  que  le  monde  attendit  bien 
des  siecles  pour  apprendre  de  Jesus  ce  que  Dieu, 
le  ciel  et  le  Christ  sont  reellement.  Et  quand, 
pendant  la  longue  nuit  du  Moyen  Age,  le  monde 
oublia  sa  lecon,  il  dut  attendre  que  Mrs.  Eddy 
decouvrit  de  nouveau  et  rendit  de  nouveau  ap- 
plicable Penseignement  de  "l'homme  le  plus  sci- 
entifique  qui  ait  jamais  marche  sur  notre  globe." 
Cela  ne  veut  pas  dire  que  durant  ces  siecles 
d'obscurite  le  monde  ait  absolument  ignore  que 
Dieu  etait  dans  son  ciel.  Maintes  et  maintes 
fois,  aussi  bien  avant  qu'apres  Fere  chretienne, 
des  hommes  ont  surgi  qui,  en  des  moments  de 
perception  spirituelle  intense,  ont  saisi  suffisam- 
ment  la  toute-puissance  de  la  verite  spirituelle 
pour  etre  capables  de  guerir  les  malades  et 
d'arreter  la  main  de  la  mort.  Pourtant  la  voix 
de  ces  hommes  n'a  ete  que  la  voix  qui  crie  dans 
le  desert  du  doute  et  de  la  sensuality,  et  leurs 
vies  furent  comme  des  £toiles  solitaires  dans 
l'obscurite"  de  la  nuit,  tandis  que  la  venue  de 
Jesus-Christ  fut  le  lever  du  soleil  de  justice  qui 
porte  la  gueVison  sous  ses  ailes.  Au  nombre  de 
ces  pionniers  dans  les  siecles  de  l'ere  chretienne 
furent,  entre  autres,  Stephen  Harding  et  Se- 
bald,  Luther,  Fox  et  Wesley.  Ces  hommes  accom- 


n  MARY    BAKER    EDDY 

These  men,  however,  achieved  all  they  did  by 
reliance  on  divine  Love,  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  they  believed  human  suffering  to  be  the 
dispensation  of  Providence,  and  plagues  and 
wars  the  visitations  of  God. 

The  first  person  to  see  the  impossibility  of 
this,  the  first  person  to  recognize  the  infinite 
goodness  of  God,  not  as  an  occasional  experi- 
ence, but  as  an  immutable  law,  was  Mrs.  Eddy, 
and  grasping  this,  she  grasped  the  science  of 
being.  "I  knew,"  she  writes,  on  page  109  of 
"Science  and  Health  with  Key  to  the  Scrip- 
tures," "the  Principle  of  all  harmonious  Mind- 
action  to  be  God,  and  that  cures  were  produced 
in  primitive  Christian  healing  by  holy,  uplift- 
ing faith;  but  I  must  know  the  Science  of  this 
healing,  and  I  won  my  way  to  absolute  conclu- 
sions through  divine  revelation,  reason,  and 
demonstration."  In  the  face  of  all  these  cir- 
cumstances Mrs.  Eddy  was  compelled  to  begin 
her  work  by  teaching,  but  her  teaching  was 
essentially  scientific,  and  so  could  in  no  way 
be  divorced  from  demonstration.  She  explains, 
herself,  on  page  9  of  the  preface  of  "Science 
and  Health  with  Key  to  the  Scriptures,"  that 
her  "first  pamphlet  on  Christian  Science  was 
copyrighted  in  1870;  but  it  did  not  appear  in 
print  until  1876,  as  she  had  learned  that  the 
Science  must  be  demonstrated  by  healing,  be- 


SON    BUT    ET   SON    CEUVRE  14 

plirent  toutes  leurs  oeuvres  en  s'appuyant  sur 
PAmour  divin,  en  depit  du  fait  qu'ils  croyaient 
que  la  souffrance  humaine  est  une  dispensation 
de  la  Providence  et  que  les  epidemies  et  les 
guerres  sont  des  chatiments  de  Dieu. 

La  premiere  personne  qui  vit  l'impossibilite  de 
cette  dispensation  du  mal,  la  premiere  personne 
qui  reconnut  la  bonte  infinie  de  Dieu  comme  une 
loi  immuable  et  non  une  chose  exceptionelle,  ce 
fut  Mrs.  Eddy.  Ayant  compris  cela,  elle  avait 
compris  la  science  de  l'etre.  "Je  connus  que  le 
Principe  de  toute  action  harmonieuse  de  Pintel- 
ligence  supreme  c'est  Dieu,  et  que  des  guerisons 
ont  ete  operees  dans  la  chretiente  primitive  par 
une  foi  sainte  et  elevee;  mais  je  voulus  connaitre 
la  Science  de  cette  guerison,  et  j'arrivai  a  des 
conclusions  absolues  grace  a  la  revelation  divine, 
la  raison  et  la  demonstration"  (Science  and 
Health,  p.  109).  Mrs.  Eddy  fut  forcee  de 
commencer  son  oeuvre  par  Penseignement,  un 
enseignement,  essentiellement  scientifique,  et, 
comme  tel,  il  ne  pouvait  en  aucune  facon 
etre  separe  de  la  demonstration.  Elle  ex- 
plique  elle-meme,  a  la  page  ix  de  la  preface 
de  "Science  and  Health  with  Key  to  the 
Scriptures"  qu'elle  prit  des  droits  d'auteur 
pour  sa  premiere  brochure  sur  la  "Christian 
Science"  en  1870,  mais  qu'elle  ne  la  fit  publier 
qu'en  1876,  car  l'auteur  avait  compris  que  la 
Science  Chretienne  devait  avoir  ete*  demontree 


lfi  MARY    BAKER    EDDY 

fore  a  work  on  the  subject  could  be  profitably 
studied."  The  works,  therefore,  of  physical 
healing  went  steadily  on,  but  they  did  not  in 
any  way  detract  from  the  teaching.  From  first 
to  last  the  command  to  preach  the  gospel  and 
lieal  the  sick  was  steadily  adhered  to. 

From  the  first  moment  Mrs.  Eddy  perceived 
that  the  movement  she  had  founded  could  only 
be  built  up  by  the  elimination  of  personality. 
She  had  taken  deeply  to  heart  that  pregnant 
saying  of  Christ  Jesus,  "The  Son  can  do  noth- 
ing of  himself,  but  what  he  seeth  the  Father 
do:  for  what  things  soever  he  doeth,  these  also 
doeth  the  Son  likewise."  "There  was  never," 
she  wrote  in  her  article  on  "Personal  Conta- 
gion," "a  religion  or  philosophy  lost  to  the  cen- 
turies except  by  sinking  its  divine  Principle  in 
personality."  In  fixing  the  final  form  of  ser- 
vice for  the  Christian  Science  churches  her  wis- 
dom was  manifested  not  alone  in  choosing  a 
form  which  gave  no  scope  for  human  ambitions, 
but  in  selecting  one  of  extraordinary  simplicity 
which  could  be  read  simultaneously  throughout 
the  entire  field. 

The  fact  is  that,  like  everything  else  in  Chris- 


SON    BUT    ET    SON    CEUVRE  15 

par  la  guerison  avant  qu'un  ouvrage  sur  ce 
sujet  put  etre  etudie  avec  profit."  Par  conse- 
quent, Fceuvre  de  guerison  physique  continua 
tou jours  sans  pourtant  porter  aucun  prejudice 
a  Penseignement.  Depuis  le  commencement,  et 
sans  relache,  le  commandement  de  precher 
Pevangile  et  de  guerir  les  malades  fut  fidele- 
ment  observe. 

Des  le  debut  Mrs.  Eddy  comprit  que  Pceuvre 
qu'elle  fondait  ne  pouvait  etre  etablie  que  par 
Pelimination  de  la  personnalite.  Elle  etait  pro- 
fondement  penetree  de  cette  parole  si  pleine  de 
promesses  de  Jesus-Christ:  "Le  fils  ne  peut 
rien  faire  de  lui-meme;  il  ne  fait  que  ce  qu'il 
voit  faire  au  Pere;  et  tout  ce  que  le  Pere  fait, 
le  fils  aussi  le  fait  pareillement."  Dans  un 
article  intitule  "Personal  Contagion,"  elle  ecrit  : 
"Aucune  religion  ou  aucune  philosophic  ne  s'est 
jamais  perdue  dans  la  suite  des  temps  que  pour 
avoir  laisse*  sombrer  son  principe  dans  la  per- 
sonnalite." Aussi,  en  fixant  la  forme  definitive 
du  culte  dans  les  eglises  de  la  Christian  Sci- 
ence, la  sagesse  de  Mrs.  Eddy  ne  se  manifesta 
pas  seulement  par  le  choix  d'une  forme  ne  don- 
nant  pas  prise  aux  ambitions  humaines,  mais  en 
Itablissant  la  forme  definitive  d'une  extraordi- 
naire simplicite,  qui  put  etre  adoptee  simul- 
tan£ment  sur  tous  les  points  de  la  sphere  d'acti- 
vit£,  de  la  Christian  Science. 

Ces  services,  ainsi  que  tout  ce  qui  fait  partie 


Hi  MARY    BAKER    EDDY 

tian  Science,  the  services  are  designed  to  have 
a  healing  and  not  an  artistic  or  emotional  ef- 
fect. The  reading  of  the  Bible  and  "Science 
and  Health  with  Key  to  the  Scriptures"  heals 
the  mind  and  so  the  body,  for  did  not  Jesus 
declare,  "Whether  is  easier,  to  say,  Thy  sins 
be  forgiven  thee;  or  to  say,  Arise,  and  walk?" 
The  therapeutics  of  Jesus  were  spiritual.  He 
never,  in  the  whole  course  of  his  ministry,  made 
use  of  a  material  remedy,  and  he  declared  that 
he  was  "the  way." 

The  occasion  of  his  anointing  the  eyes  of  the 
blind  man  with  clay  has  been  used  as  an  argu- 
ment in  support  of  material  remedies,  but  this 
only  proves  how  desperate  is  the  case  of  those 
who,  in  the  words  of  Mrs.  Eddy,  on  page  78  of 
"Science  and  Health  with  Key  to  the  Scrip- 
tures," would  "hold  spirit  in  the  grasp  of 
matter." 

That  the  man  who  stilled  the  tempest,  walked 
on  the  water,  and  raised  the  dead  by  the  simple 
realization  that  God  heard  him  always,  and  that 
the  spiritual  law  was  always  available  by  those 
who  knew  how  to  apply  it,  could  not  heal  a  case 
of  blindness  without  resort  to  the  medical 
methods  of  the  men  who  attempted  to  destroy 
blindness  with  charred  viper's  flesh  or  the  blood 
of  red  he-goats  is  in  itself  a  sufficiently  amazing 
argument. 

It  is  this  note  of  healing  which  rings  inces- 
santly throughout  the  entire  movement,  in  its 


SON    BUT    ET    SON    OZUVRE  16 

de  la  Christian  Science,  sont  destines  a  produire 
un  effet  curatif  et  non  un  effet  artistique  ou 
sensationnel.  La  lecture  de  la  Bible  et  de 
"Science  and  Health  with  Key  to  the  Scrip- 
tures" guerit  Pesprit  aussi  bien  que  le  corps. 
Jesus  n'a-t-il  pas  dit:  "Lequel  est  le  plus  aise, 
de  dire:  tes  peches  te  sont  pardonnes,  ou  de 
dire:  leve-toi  et  marche?"  La  therapeutique  de 
Jesus  etait  spirituelle.  Pendant  tout  le  cours 
de  son  ministere,  il  ne  fit  jamais  usage  d'un 
remede  materiel  et  il  declara  qu'il  etait  "le 
chemin." 

Cependant  le  fait  que  Jesus  a  oint  les  yeux 
de  Paveugle-ne  avec  de  la  boue  a  servi  d'argu- 
ment  en  faveur  des  remedes  materiels,  mais  cela 
ne  fait  que  prouver  combien  est  desespere  le  cas 
de  ceux  qui  veulent  "maintenir  Pesprit  sous 
Petreinte  de  la  matiere"  (Science  and  Health, 
,,.  78). 

Ce  serait  un  argument  par  trop  suprenant 
de  soutenir  que  Phomme  qui  calma  la  tempete, 
marcha  sur  les  eaux  et  ressuscita  les  morts, 
parce  qu'il  avait  la  conviction  que  Dieu  Pen- 
tendait  tou jours  et  que  la  loi  spirituelle  etait 
toujours  effective  pour  qui  savait  Pappliquer, 
ait  du  recourir  aux  methodes  medicales  qui  ten- 
taient  de  guerir  les  aveugles  avec  de  la  peau  de 
vipere  carbonisee  ou  du  sang  de  boue  rouge. 

C'est  ce  theme  de  guerison  qui  vibre  constam- 
iik -nt  dans  le  mouvement  scientiste  tout  entier, 


17  MARY    BAKER    EDDY 

church  service,  in  its  literature,  and  on  its  lec- 
ture platforms,  just  as  much  as  by  the  bedside 
of  the  sick.  In  the  first  half  century  of  the 
movement  the  incessant  efforts  of  the  great 
leader  have  been  devoted  without  stint  to  ful- 
filling the  vision  she  describes  on  page  226  of 
"Science  and  Health  with  Key  to  the  Scrip- 
tures," "The  lame,  the  deaf,  the  dumb,  the 
blind,  the  sick,  the  sensual,  the  sinner,  I  wished 
to  save  from  the  slavery  of  their  own  beliefs, 
and  from  the  educational  systems  of  the  Pha- 
raohs, who  today,  as  of  yore,  hold  the  children 
of  Israel  in  bondage."  In  order  to  do  this  it 
was  necessary,  too,  for  Mrs.  Eddy  to  educate 
her  followers  in  Christian  Science.  In  about 
the  year  1867  she  opened  the  first  school  of 
Christian  Science  Mind-Healing,  with  a  solitary 
student,  in  Lynn,  Massachuestts.  Fourteen 
years  later  she  obtained  the  charter  for  the 
Massachusetts  Metaphysical  College,  in  which, 
during  the  following  seven  years,  she  taught 
upward  of  four  thousand  students.  In  this 
way  "the  Grand  Army"  of  Christian  Science 
was  first  enlisted,  and  enlisted,  in  her  own 
words,  on  page  450  of  "Science  and  Health 
with  Key  to  the  Scriptures,"  "to  lessen  evil, 
disease,  and  death."  Wherever  this  army 
marches  it  carries  with  it  its  banners  on  which 
are  inscribed  the  words  "Slavery  is  Abolished," 
not  the  mere  slavery  of  men's  bodies  alone, 
but    the    more    remorseless    slaverv    of    men^ 


SON    BUT    ET   SON   CEUVRE  17 

dans  son  culte,  dans  sa  litterature  et  ses  confe- 
rences, tout  autant  qu'au  chevet  des  raalades. 
Pendant  les  cinquante  premieres  annees  de  ce 
mouvement,  les  efforts  incessants  de  notre  grand 
guide  ont  ete  diriges  sans  reserve  vers  la  reali- 
sation de  la  vision  decrite  ainsi  par  elle:  "J'ai 
voulu  delivrer  les  boiteux,  les  sourds,  les  muets, 
les  aveugles,  les  malades,  les  sensuels,  les  pe- 
cheurs,  de  l'esclavage  de  leurs  propres  croyan- 
ces  et  des  systemes  d'education  des  Pharaons 
d'aujourd'hui,  qui,  comme  autrefois,  retiennent 
les  enfants  d'Israel  en  servitude"  (Science  and 
Health,  p.  226).  Pour  y  arriver,  il  fallait  que 
Mrs.  Eddy  instruisit  ses  disciples  dans  la  Sci- 
ence Chretienne.  Elle  ouvrit  done  vers  l'annee 
1867,  a  Lynn,  Massachusetts,  une  premiere 
£cole  de  guerison  mentale  par  la  Christian 
Science  avec  un  seul  eleve.  Quatorze  ans  plus 
tard,  elle  obtint  un  acte  legal  autorisant  son 
college  metaphysique  de  Massachusetts,  dans 
lequel  pendant  les  sept  annees  qui  suivirent,  elle 
instruisit  plus  de  4000  etudiants.  Ainsi  fut 
enrolee  "la  grande  Armee  de  la  Christian 
Science  qui  s'engageait  "a  diminuer  le  mal,  la 
maladie  et  la  mort"  (Science  and  Health,  p. 
450).  Partout  ou  marche  cette  armee,  elle 
porte  ses  bannieres  sur  lesquelles  brille  Inscrip- 
tion: "L'esclavage  est  aboli;"  non  seulement 
l'esclavage  du  corps,  mais  l'esclavage  bien  plus 
impitoyable  de  l'esprit  humain  soumis  aux  lois 


18  MARY    BAKER    EDDY 

minds,    to    the    laws    of    custom,    belief,    and 
disease. 

Among  Mrs.  Eddy's  provisions  for  the  rescue 
of  humanity  was  the  Christian  Science  Board 
of  Lectureship,  an  organization  which  in  its 
inception  carries  one  back  to  the  days  of  primi- 
tive Christianity.  In  this  conception  what 
Monsieur  Jusserand  has  so  beautifully  termed 
"La  Vie  Errant"  has  found  its  resurrection. 
The  Christian  Science  lecturer  can  scarcely  be 
said  to  have  a  home.  He  may,  at  any  moment, 
be  called  upon  to  take  up  his  abode  in  some  city 
far  from  his  native  land.  At  the  request  of 
those  who  need  his  help  he  sails  for  China  or 
Australia,  just  as  the  early  workers  loosed 
from  Troas,  or  sailed  unto  Cypress.  All  coun- 
tries are  alike  to  them.  They  mingle  with  men 
of  every  nationality  and  every  temperament,  but 
wherever  they  go  they  preach,  saying,  the  king- 
dom of  heaven,  the  reign  of  harmony  on  earth, 
is  at  hand,  and  so  bind  up  the  broken-hearted, 
and  bring  peace  to  the  weary  and  heavy  laden. 
The  platform  of  the  Christian  Science  lecturer 
is  not  designed  to  rival  the  Roman  rostrum,  but 
to  imitate,  however  feebly,  the  boat  anchored 
by  the  shore  of  Galilee. 


SON    BUT    ET    SON    (EUVRE  lb 

de  la  coutunie,  des  fausses  croyances  et  de  la 
maladie. 

Parmi  les  mesures  qu'a  prises  Mrs.  Eddy 
pour  assurer  le  salut  de  Phumanite  se  trouve 
Pinstitution  du  comite  des  Conferences  de  la 
Christian  Science,  organisation  qui,  des  ses  de- 
buts, rappelle  les  premiers  jours  du  christian- 
isme,  et  fait  revivre  ce  que  Monsieur  Jusserand 
a  qualifie  du  beau  terme  de  "Vie  errante."  En 
effet,  le  conferencier  de  la  Christian  Science 
n'a,  pour  ainsi  dire,  pas  de  foyer.  D'un  moment 
a  Pautre,  il  peut  etre  appele  a  fixer  sa  demeure 
dans  quelque  ville  eloignee  de  son  pays  natal. 
Sur  la  demande  de  ceux  qui  ont  besoin  de  son 
aide,  il  s'embarque  pour  la  Chine  ou  PAustralie, 
de  meme  que  les  premiers  apotres  quittaient 
Troas  ou  s'embarquaient  pour  Chypre.  Pour 
eux,  tous  les  pays  se  valent.  lis  sont  habitues 
a  se  meler  avec  des  hommes  de  toutes  les  natio- 
nality, de  tous  les  temperaments.  Mais  partout 
ils  prechent,  disant:  le  royaume  de  Dieu,  le 
regne  de  Pharmonie  sur  la  terre  est  proche,  et 
ainsi  ils  consolent  les  coeurs  brises  et  apportent 
la  paix  a  ceux  qui  sont  travailles  et  charges. 
Ne  croyez  pas,  cependant,  que  la  tribune  du 
conferencier  de  la  Christian  Science  doive  riva- 
li«  r  avec  les  rostres  romains,  elle  est  simple- 
ment  destinee  a  rappeler,  quoique  bien  faible- 
ment — la  barque  de  Jesus,  a  Pancre  pres  du 
■   de  (i  ililee. 


19  MARY    BAKEH    EDDY 

As  it  is  with  the  lectures,  so  it  is  also  with 
the  literature.  In  April,  1883,  in  order  to  meet 
the  ever-broadening  requirements  of  the  move- 
ment, Mrs.  Eddy  started  the  monthly  Journal 
of  Christian  Science,  of  which  she  was  at  first 
not  only  editor,  but  publisher,  and  some  years 
later  the  weekly  paper,  known  as  The  Christian 
Science  Sentinel.  The  object  of  these  periodi- 
cals was  not  only  to  provide  a  wider  exercise  for 
the  energies  of  Christian  Scientists,  it  was  to 
carry  Christian  Science  healing  to  a  greater 
public ;  and  not  a  single  issue  of  these  now  well- 
known  periodicals  has  ever  gone  out  from  the 
publishing  house  which  has  not  carried  to  its 
readers  some  story  of  healing  through  Christian 
Science. 

Meantime,  in  spite  of  all  these  Herculean 
labors,  Mrs.  Eddy  was  steadily  adding  to  the 
list  of  her  own  writings.  The  greatest,  the 
most  famous  of  all  these  is,  of  course,  the  text- 
book of  Christian  Science,  "Science  and  Health 
with  Key  to  the  Scriptures";  "the  precious 
volume,"  as  she  has  herself  termed  it,  the  book 
which  has  attained  the  greatest  circulation  of 
any  book  ever  known  during  the  lifetime  of  its 
author.  This  was,  however,  only  the  most  vital 
of  her  writings.  In  her  ninetieth  year  she  pub- 
lished her  last  volume,  the  beautiful  little  edi- 
tion of  her  collected  poems,  one  stanza  of  which 


son    BUT    BT    SON    CEUVRE  iy 

Des  le  mois  d'avril,  1883,  pour  faire  face 
aux  besoins  tou jours  grandissants  du  mouve- 
ment,  Mrs.  Eddy  fonda  "The  Christian  Science 
Journal,"  revue  mensuelle  dont  elle  fut  a  la  fois 
le  redacteur  en  chef  et  Fediteur.  Quelques  an- 
nees  apres,  elle  fit  paraitre  la  "Christian  Science 
Sentinel,"  journal  hebdomadaire.  L'objet  de 
ces  publications  periodiques  n'est  pas  seulement 
de  fournir  aux  energies  des  Scientistes  chretiens 
un  champ  d'action  plus  vaste,  mais  aussi  de  pre- 
senter la  guerison  par  la  Christian  Science  a 
un  public  plus  nombreux.  Et  pas  un  seul  nu- 
mero  de  ces  publications  maintenant  si  repan- 
dues  ne  sort  de  chez  l'editeur  sans  apporter  a 
ses  lecteurs  le  recit  de  quelques  guerisons  ope- 
rees  par  la  Christian  Science. 

En  meme  temps,  malgre  ce  labeur  herculeen, 
Mrs.  Eddy  ajoutait  constamment  de  nouveaux 
ouvrages  a  la  liste  de  ses  oeuvres.  Le  plus  im- 
portant, le  plus  fameux  de  tous  est  naturelle- 
ment,  le  manuel  de  la  Christian  Science  intitule 
"Science  and  Health  with  Key  to  the  Scrip- 
tures." Ce  "precieux  volume,"  ainsi,  qu'elle  Fa 
qualifie  elle-meme,  est  de  tous  les  livres  connus 
celui  qui  a  atteint  la  plus  grande  circulation  du 
vi\;int  meme  de  son  auteur.  C'est  la  le  plus 
vital  mais  non  le  dernier,  de  ses  ouvrages,  car 
dans  sa  quatre-vingt-dixieme  annee,  elle  fit  pa- 
raitre son  dernier  volume,  la  belle  petite  Edition 
de  son  recueil  de  poemes,  dont  Fune  des  strophes 


■0  MAUV    BAKER    KDDV 

illustrates  so  perfectly  her  attitude  to  tin- 
world  : 

Beneath  the  shadow  of  His  mighty  wing; 
In  that  sweet  secret  of  the  narrow  way, 
Seeking  and  finding,  with  the  angels  sing: 
"Lo,  I  am  with  you  alway: — watch  and  pray." 

Of  all  Mrs.  Eddy's  literary  labors,  however,  the 
one  which  will  probably  continue  to  strike  the 
public  with  most  astonishment  is  the  foundation 
of  The  Christian  Science  Monitor.  In  publish- 
ing this  paper  she  fulfilled,  at  eighty-seven,  a 
plan  she  had  never  lost  sight  of  for  twenty- 
seven  years.  The  conception  of  it,  the  name, 
the  motto,  all  were  her  own ;  and  at  her  bidding 
her  devoted  followers  performed  what  to  the 
world  was  a  miracle,  when  within  three  months 
of  her  request  they  cleared  the  ground,  built 
the  offices,  equipped,  and  brought  into  existence 
a  daily  paper,  which  in  two  years  has  acquired 
a  unique  circulation  which  extends  entirely 
round  the  globe.  Its  mission  is  to  bring  healing 
to  mankind,  not  by  reporting  what  is  worst  of 
men  and  nations,  but  what  is  best;  not  by 
relying  on  sensationalism,  but  on  a  sober  regard 
and  examination  of  facts;  not  by  standing  for 
a  party,  but  always  for  the  state. 

In  this  way  it  is  fulfilling  the  destiny  marked 
out  for  it  in  the  motto  selected  by  its  founder, 


SOX    BUT    ET    SON    CEUVRE  20 

depeint  si  parfaitement  Pattitude  de  Mrs.  Eddy 
vis-a-vis  du  monde: 

A  l'ombre  de  Son  aile  puissante; 
Dans  ce  doux  mystere  du  chemin  dtroit, 
Cherchant  et  trouvant,  chantez  avec  les  anges: 
"Voici,  je  sui3  avec  vous  pour  toujours:  veillez 
et  priez." 

Cependant,  de  tous  les  travaux  de  Mrs.  Eddy 
celui  qui  continuera  probablement  a  paraitre  le 
plus  surprenant,  c'est  la  fondation  du  journal 
quotidien,  "The  Christian  Science  Monitor." 
En  lancant  ce  journal  a  Page  de  quatre-vingt- 
sept  ans,  elle  mit  a  execution  un  projet  caresse 
depuis  vingt-sept  ans,  et  dont  Pidee  premiere, 
le  nom,  la  devise,  tout  etait  d'elle.  Sous  ses 
ordres,  ses  disciples  devoues  accomplirent  ce 
qui  aux  yeux  du  monde  sembla  miraculeux.  En 
moins  de  trois  mois,  Pemplacement  fut  deblaye, 
les  bureaux  bat  is,  agences,  et  un  journal  cree. 
Dans  Pespace  de  deux  ans,  ce  journal  a  obtenu 
une  circulation  unique  et  penetre  dans  le  monde 
entier.  II  a  pour  mission  d'apporter  la  guerison 
a  Phumanite*  en  divulguant  non  ce  qu'il  y  a  de 
plus  mauvais  parmi  les  hommes  et  les  nations, 
mais  ce  qu'il  y  a  de  meilleur;  en  ne  s'appuyantU< 
Mir  ce  qui  est  sensationnel,  mais  en  examinant 
les  faits  avor  attention  et  moderation;  en  repre- 
nt  non  un  parti,  mais  touiours  P^tat. 
eettc  f;icon  "The  Monitor"  remplit  la 
destinle  que  lui  n  tracee  sa  fondatrice  dans  la 


21  MARY    BAKER    EDDY 

"First  the  blade,  then   the  ear,  then   the   full 
grain  in  the  ear." 

The  unerring  wisdom  of  Mrs.  Eddy  in  nurs- 
ing and  directing  the  energies  of  the  movement 
she  has  founded  has  been  briefly  summarized,  but 
her  efforts  did  not  cease  here.  In  the  Commit- 
tees on  Publication,  which  have  their  offices  in 
every  corner  of  the  globe,  she  has  built  up  a 
great  bulwark  of  defense,  the  strength  of  which 
it  would  be  difficult  to  exaggerate.  The  motto 
of  these  committees  might  be  said  to  be  "de- 
fense, not  defiance."  Their  duty  is  not  to  at- 
tack the  opinions  of  other  people,  it  is  to  defend 
their  own  cause,  and  to  do  this  by  firmly  yet 
temperately  working  to  see  that  the  truth  and 
nothing  but  the  truth  shall  be  circulated  on 
any  particular  point.  It  is  here  that  the  wis- 
dom of  Mrs.  Eddy  has  been  peculiarly  appar- 
ent, and  with  this  wisdom  necessarily  her  love 
for  humanity.  While  nearly  all  other  move- 
ments are  dissipating  much  of  their  strength 
in  attacking  the  opinions  of  their  neighbors, 
Christian  Scientists  are  giving  every  moment 
of  their  time  to  patiently  demonstrating  the 
truth  of  their  own.  There  is  an  old  saying  that 
a  grain  of  proof  is  worth  a  pound  of  argument, 
and  the  proof  of  Christian  Science  is  a  living 
proof,  walking  about  the  lanes  and  cities  of  the 


SON    BUT    ET   SON    CEUVRE  21 

devise:  "D'abord  la  feuille,  puis  Pepi,  et  enfin 
le  grain  dans  Pepi." 

Nous  venons  d'exposer  brievement  avec 
quelle  infaillible  sagesse  Mrs.  Eddy  encou- 
ragea  et  dirigea  les  energies  du  mouvement 
qu'elle  a  fonde.  Mais  ses  efforts  ne  s'arre- 
terent  pas  la.  Par  la  creation  de  Comites 
de  Publication  siegeant  sur  tous  les  points 
du  globe,  elle  a  eleve  un  important  rempart 
de  defense,  dont  il  serait  difficile  d'exagerer 
la  force.  La  devise  de  ces  comites  pourrait 
etre  formulee  ainsi:  "Defense  et  non  defi." 
Leur  devoir  n'est  pas  d'attaquer  les  opinions 
des  autres,  mais  de  defendre  leur  propre  cause 
d'une  maniere  ferme  et  moderee,  pour  que  la 
verite  et  rien  que  la  verite  circule  partout. 
C'est  en  cela  que  la  sagesse  de  Mrs.  Eddy  est 
particulierement  apparente,  et  avec  cette  sa- 
gesse, son  amour  pour  Phumanite.  En  effet, 
tandis  que  dans  presque  tous  les  autres  courants 
d'idees  les  adeptes  dissipent  une  grande  partie 
de  leurs  forces  a  attaquer  les  opinions  du  pro- 
chain,  les  SnYntistes  chr£tiens,  au  contraire, 
<  nnsacrent  chaque  instant  de  leur  temps  a  de- 
montrer  patiemment  la  verity  de  leurs  propres 
opinions.  Un  vieux  dicton  dit  qu'un  grain  de 
pnuve  vaut  mieux  qu'une  livre  d'arguments. 
Eh  bien,  les  preuves  ne  manquent  pas  a  la  Chris- 
tian Science,  et  ce  sont  des  preuves  vivantes 
parcourant  les  chemins  et  los  villes  du  monde 


22  MARY    BAKER    EDDY 

whole  world  in  the  shape  of  men  and  women 
rescued  from  pain  and  sorrow,  from  disease  and 
from  the  grave.  The  opponents  of  Christian 
Science  may  shake  their  heads,  may  explain 
with  unwearying  perseverence  that  the  patients 
were  not  so  bad  as  they  thought  themselves,  or, 
as  a  last  resort,  that  the  medical  diagnosis  was 
wrong,  and  that  the  sufferers  would  have  got 
well  anyhow.  They  may  convince  those  who 
were  convinced  before,  but  on  the  patients  them- 
selves, on  their  families,  to  whom  they  have  been 
given  back,  or  on  their  relatives  and  friends 
who  have  witnessed  what  has  been  accomplished, 
these  arguments  amount  to  Vox  et  prccterea 
nihil.  Who  can  undertake  to  say  how  bad  a 
man  may  have  thought  he  was,  and  if  the  diag- 
noses of  the  medical  profession  are  wrong  in  all 
these  cases,  then  there  is  more  need  for  Chris- 
tian Science  than  Emerson's  "man  in  the  street" 
has  ever  dreamed  of.  History  repeats  itself: 
these  were  the  very  arguments  used  by  the  Jew- 
ish doctors  to  the  man  who  was  born  blind. 
First  they  attemped  to  suggest  through  his  pa- 
rents that  the  history  of  the  disease  had  not  been 
fully  established;  then,  failing  in  this,  they  at- 
tempted to  destroy  the  credit  of  the  "healer  of 
Gennesaret,"  with  the  sole  result  that  there  has 
come  ringing  down  the  centuries  the  half-con- 
temptuous and  wholly  triumphant  answer  of 
the  ^ick  man,  "One  thing  I  know,  that,  whereas 
I  was  blind,  now  I  see." 


SON    BUT    ET    SON    (EUVRE  22 

entier  sous  la  forme  d'hommes  et  de  femmes 
delivres  de  la  maladie  et  de  la  mort.  Que  les 
adversaires  de  la  Christian  Science  hochent  la 
tete  et  alleguent  avec  une  infatigable  perse- 
verance que  les  malades  gueris  n'etaient  pas  si 
atteints  qu'ils  le  pensaient,  ou  en  dernier  ressort 
que  le  diagnostic  etait  faux  et  que  les  malades 
se  seraient  retablis  dans  tous  les  cas.  lis  con- 
vaincront  peut-etre  ceux  qui  etaient  convaincus 
d'avance,  mais  pour  les  malades  eux-memes, 
pour  leurs  families  auxquelles  ils  ont  ete  rendus 
ou  pour  leurs  parents  et  amis  temoins  de  ce  qui  a 
£te  accompli,  ces  arguments  ne  comptent  pas. 
"Vox  et  prceterea  nihil.'*  Du  reste,  qui  pour- 
rait  se  permettre  de  dire  a  quel  point  une  per- 
sonne  s'est  sentie  malade,  et  certifier  que  le 
diagnostic  etait  faux  dans  tous  les  cas  dont  il 
est  question?  L'histoire  se  repete  elle-meme. 
N'etaient-ce  pas  la  les  arguments  memes  dont 
se  servirent  les  docteurs  juifs  au  sujet  de 
Paveugle-ne?  D'abord  ils  essayerent  de  faire 
prouver  par  les  parents  de  Paveugle  que  l'his- 
torique  de  son  infirmite  avait  ete  mal  etabli,  puis 
6chouant  en  cela,  ils  tenterent  de  perdre  la 
reputation  de  celui  qui  guerissait  a  Genesareth. 
Et  pour  tout  resultat,  ils  obtinrent  de  Paveugle 
cette  r£ponse,  dont  Pironie  et  le  triomphe  re- 
sonnent  a  travers  les  ages:  "Je  ne  sais  qu'une 
chose,  c'est  que  j'^tais  aveugle  et  que  mainte- 
nant  je  vois." 


98  MARY    BAKER    EDDY 

It  was  for  the  purpose  of  giving  the  public 
the  opportunity  of  hearing  these  testimonies 
of  healing  first  hand,  that  the  Wednesday  eve- 
ning testimony  meetings  were  established  by 
Mrs.  Eddy.  These  meetings  constitute  one  of 
the  most  marvelous  factors  in  the  chain  of  evi- 
dence which  is  binding  Christian  Science  round 
the  hemispheres.  Every  Wednesday  evening, 
at  about  eight  o'clock,  these  meetings  begin, 
and  as  the  sun  travels  west,  or  seems  to  travel 
west,  across  the  sky,  they  follow  it,  through 
every  country  and  amidst  every  people,  until 
the  story  of  Christian  Science  healing  has  been 
told  round  the  entire  earth.  In  those  twenty- 
four  hours  a  minimum  probably  of  five  thousand 
testimonies  of  the  healing  power  of  the  Christ 
have  been  given ;  and,  in  another  week,  the  chain 
of  Christian  Science  healing  will  be  stretched 
right  around  the  earth. 

It  is  thirty-one  years  since  The  Mother 
Church,  The  First  Church  of  Christ,  Scientist, 
was  established  in  Boston,  when,  on  the  19th  of 
April,  1879,  Mrs.  Eddy  and  a  handful  of  her 
students  met,  in  the  words  of  "Retrospection 
and  Introspection,"  on  page  44,  "to  organize  a 
church  to  commemorate  the  words  and  works  of 
our  Master,  a  mind-healing  church,  without  a 
creed,  to  be  called  the  Church  of  Christ,  Scien- 
ist."     In  those  thirty-one  years  hundreds  upon 


SOX    BUT    ET    SON    CEUVRE  23 

Enfin,  c'est  pour  donner  au  public  l'occasion 
d'entendre  sur  les  guerisons  des  temoignages 
directs  que  les  reunions  du  mercredi  soir  ont 
ete  etablies  par  Mrs.  Eddy.  Ces  reunions,  ou 
meetings,  constituent  Tun  des  plus  merveilleux 
facteurs  dans  la  chalne  de  preuves  qui  relie 
la  Christian  Science  autour  des  hemispheres. 
Chaque  mercedi  soir  a  huit  heures  environ  ces 
reunions  commencent,  et  a  mesure  que  le  soleil 
avance  vers  POccident  ou  semble  avancer  vers 
l'Occident,  les  reunions  se  succedcnt  de  pays 
en  pays  et  de  peuple  en  peuple,  jusqu'a  ce  que 
l'histoire  des  guerisons  par  la  Christian  Sci- 
ence ait  ete  racontee  autour  de  la  terre  entiere. 
Pendant  ces  vingt-quatre  heures  un  minimum  de 
cinq  mille  temoignages  du  pouvoir  guerisseur  du 
Christ  auront  ete  donnes;  et  une  semaine  plus 
tard  le  fil  se  renouera  et  de  nouveau  la  chaine 
des  guerisons  par  la  Christian  Science  s'etendra 
tout  autour  de  la  terre. 

II  y  a  trente-deux  ans  que  l'^glise  Mere, 
La  Premiere  £glise  de  Christ,  Scientiste,  fut 
etablie  a  Boston  a  la  date  .du  19  avril  1879. 
Ce  jour-la  Mrs.  Eddy  et  une  poignee  de 
ses  Aleves  se  reunirent  pour  organiser  une 
eglise  commemorant  les  paroles  et  les  oeuvres 
<lu  Maitre,  Eglise  guerissant  mentalement, 
n'ayant  pas  de  credo  et  devant  etre  nommee 
"6glise  de  Christ,  Scientiste"  ("Retrospection 
and  Introspection,"  p.  44).  Pendant  ces 
trente-deux  annees,  ainsi  qu'un  tronc  puissant, 


24  MARY    BAKER    EDDY 

hundreds  of  branch  churches  and  societies  have- 
grown  from  the  parent  stem,  and  weekly  in  the 
meetings  of  these  churches  and  societies,  by  the 
wise  provision  of  the  leader  of  the  movement, 
the  story  of  Christian  healing  is  told  by  men 
and  women  whose  gratitude  impels  them  to  give 
words  of  help  and  encouragement  to  those  who 
attend  the  services. 

There  is  an  expression  to  which  everyone  is 
accustomed  that  when  there  is  fighting  to  be 
done  it  is  the  man  behind  the  gun  who  counts. 
The  Christian  Science  movement  is  a  militant 
movement,  though  it  wrestles  "not  against  flesh 
and  blood,  but  against  principalities,  against 
powers,  against  the  rulers  of  the  darkness  of 
this  world."  All  Mrs.  Eddy's  care  and  wisdom 
would  have  been  wasted  if  she  could  not  have 
found  the  man  behind  the  gun,  the  genuine 
Christian  Scientist.  Of  course  she  had  to  train 
the  army  of  Christian  Science,  to  try  to  instil 
into  its  soldiers  something  of  the  selfless  love 
for  humanity  she  herself  felt.  She  had  to  teach 
them  to  strive  to  den}r  themselves,  and  to  begin 
to  live  for  the  world ;  she  had,  in  a  word,  to  teach 
them  Christian  Science.  In  this  as  in  every- 
thing else  she  has  been  so  successful  that  she 
has  trained  a  great  body  of  workers,  which  is 


SOX    BUT    ET    SON    CEUVRE  24 

P£glise  s'est  ramifiee  en  centaines  et  en  mil- 
liers  d'eglises  et  de  soci£tes.  Et  chaque  semaine, 
dans  les  reunions  de  ces  eglises,  de  ces  societ£s, 
par  la  sage  prevoyance  du  guide  de  ce  mouve- 
ment,  l'histoire  de  la  guerison  chretienne  est 
racontee  par  des  hommes  et  des  femmes  que  la 
reconnaissance  oblige  a  prononcer  des  paroles 
d'aide  et  de  reconfort  pour  ceux  qui  assistent 
a  ses  services. 

On  connait  cette  expression:  a,  la  bataille, 
Phomme  qui  compte  c'est  celui  qui  charge  le 
fusil.  Or,  le  mouvement  de  la  Christian  Sci- 
ence est  un  mouvement  militant,  bien  qu'il  ne 
s'attaque  ni  a  la  chair  ni  au  sang,  mais  aux 
"principautes,  aux  puissances,  et  aux  maitres 
de  ce  monde  de  tenebres." 

Et  certes,  tous  les  soins,  toute  la  sagesse  de 
Mrs.  Eddy  eussent  ete  perdus,  si  elle  n'avait 
trouve  Phomme  prepare  a  cette  lutte  sainte,  le 
veritable  Scientiste  chretien.  Aussi  Mrs.  Eddy 
dut-elle  discipliner  Parmee  de  la  Christian  Sci- 
ence pour  inculquer  a  ses  soldats  un  peu  de 
cet  amour  desinteresse  qu'elle  ressentait  elle- 
meme  pour  Phumanite.  Elle  leur  enseigna  a 
faire  Peffort  n^cessaire  pour  renoncer  a  soi  et 
vivre  pour  son  prochain ;  en  un  mot,  elle  eut  a 
leur  enseigner  la  Christian  Science.  En  cela 
comme  en  tout  le  reste  elle  a  si  bien  r£ussi, 
qu'elle  a  forme  une  nombreuse  arm£e  de  travail- 
leurs   qui   vont   dans   tous  les  pays   porter  la 


2fi  MARY    BAKER    EDDY 

carrying  the  mind-healing  which  the  original 
Christian  Science  Church  was  organized  to 
demonstrate,  into  every  land.  This  is  why  the 
future  of  Christian  Science  is  assured,  because 
Mrs.  Eddy  has  pointed  her  followers  steadfastly 
to  principle  and  not  to  person.  "What  went 
you  out  for  to  see?"  she  asks  in  "Personal  Con- 
tagion," "a  person  or  a  Principle?  Whichever 
it  be  determines  the  right  or  the  wrong  of  this 
following." 

No  Christian  Scientists,  toiling  along  the 
road  from  sense  to  soul,  could  ever  stray  from 
the  path  if  they  would  only  remember  the  con- 
cluding words  of  her  article  "Pond  and  Pur- 
pose," on  page  207  of  "Miscellaneous  Writ- 
ings": "As  you  journey,  and  betimes  sigh  for 
rest  'beside  still  waters,'  ponder  this  lesson  of 
love.  Learn  its  purpose ;  and  in  hope  and  faith, 
where  heart  meets  heart  reciprocally  blest,  drink 
with  me  the  living  waters  of  the  spirit  of  my 
life-purpose — to  impress  humanity  with  the 
genuine  recognition  of  practical,  operative 
Christian  Science." 


SOX    BUT    ET   SON   OZUVRE  25 

guerison  mentale  que  Peglise  de  la  Christian 
Science  a  pour  mission  de  demontrer.  L'ave- 
nir  de  la  Christian  Science  est  assure*  parce 
que  Mrs.  Eddy  a  donne  a  ses  disciples  une 
orientation  constante  non  vers  la  personnalite, 
raais  vers  le  Principe.  "Qu'etes-vous  alles 
voir?"  demande-t-elle  dans  "Personal  Contag- 
ion," "une  personne  ou  un  principe?  Votre 
choix  dessinera  pour  vous  Pavenir  soit  en  bien 
soit  en  mal." 

Aucun  Scientiste  chretien,  gravissant  penible- 
ment  la  route  qui  mene  de  la  matiere  a  PEsprit, 
ne  pourra  jamais  s'egarer,  s'il  veut  se  rappeler 
les  derniers  mots  de  Particle  de  Mrs.  Eddy 
"Pond  and  Purpose"  a  la  page  207  de  "Mis- 
cellaneous Writings":  "Tandis  que  vous  suivez 
votre  chemin,  si  parfois  vous  aspirez  au  repos 
'pres  des  eaux  paisibles'  m£ditez  cette  lecon 
d'amour.  Apprenez-en  l'objet;  et,  la  ou  les 
coeurs  pleins  d'esperance  et  de  foi  ne  se  rencon- 
trent  que  pour  se  benir,  buvez  avec  moi  des 
eaux  vives  de  PEsprit  qui  a  inspire  le  but  de 
ma  vie,  et  qui  nous  donnera  le  pouvoir  d'amener 
Phumanite*  a  reconnaitre  sincerement  la  Chris- 
tian Science  efficace  et  applicable." 


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